THE BUILDERS

BY

JOSEPH FORT NEWTON,
LITT. D.

These signs and tokens are of no small
value; they speak a universal language, and act as a passport to the attention
and support of the initiated in all parts of the world. They cannot be lost so
long as memory retains its power. Let the possessor of them be expatriated,
ship-wrecked, or imprisoned; let him be stripped of everything he has got in
the world; still these credentials remain and are available for use as
circumstances require.

The great effects which they have produced
are established by the most incontestable facts of history. They have stayed
the uplifted hand of the destroyer; they have softened the asperities of the
tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have subdued the
rancor of malevolence, and broken down the barriers of political animosity and
sectarian alienation.

On the field of battle, in the solitude of
the uncultivated forests, or in the busy haunts of the crowded city, they have
made men of the most hostile feelings, and most distant religions, and the
most diversified conditions, rush to the aid of each other, and feel a social
joy and satisfaction that they have been able to afford relief to a brother
Mason.--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

CHAPTER V

Universal
Masonry

I

HENCEFORTH the Masons of England were no longer
a society of handicraftsmen, but an association of men of all orders and every
vocation, as also of almost every creed, who met together on the broad basis
of humanity, and recognized no standard of human worth other than morality,
kindliness, and love of truth. They retained the symbolism of the old
Operative Masonry, its language, its legends, its ritual, and its oral
tradition. No longer did they build churches, but the spiritual

temple of humanity; using the Square not to
measure right angles of blocks of stone, but for evening the inequalities of
human character, nor the Compass any more to describe circles on a
tracing-board, but to draw a Circle of goodwill around all mankind.

Howbeit, one generation of men, as Hume
re-marks, does not go off the stage at once, and another succeed, like
silkworms and butterflies. No more did this metamorphosis of Masonry, so to
name it, take place suddenly or radically, as it has become the fashion to
think. It was a slow process, and like every such period the Epoch of
Transition was attended by many problems, uncertainties, and difficulties.
Some of the Lodges, as we have noted, would never agree to admit Accepted
Masons, so jealous were they of the ancient landmarks of the Craft. Even the
Grand Lodge, albeit a revival of the old Assembly, was looked upon with
suspicion by not a few, as tending toward undue centralization; and not
without cause. From the first the Grand Master was given more power than was
ever granted to the President of an ancient Assembly; of necessity so,
perhaps, but it led to misunderstanding. Other influences added to the
confusion, and at the same time emphasized the need of welding the order into
a more coherent unity for its wider service to humanity.

There are hints to the effect that the new
Masonry, if so it may be called, made very slow progress in the public favor
at first, owing to the conditions just stated; and this despite the remark of
Anderson in June, 1719: "Now several old Brothers that had neglected the
Craft, visited the Lodges; some Noblemen were also made Brothers, and more new
Lodges were constituted." Stuckely, the antiquarian, tells us in his Diary
under date of January, 1721--at which time he was initiated--that he was the
first person made a Mason in London for years, and that it was not easy to
find men enough to perform the ceremony. Incidentally, he confides to us that
he entered the order in search of the long hidden secrets of "the Ancient
Mysteries." No doubt he exaggerated in the matter of numbers, though it is
possible that initiations were comparatively few at the time, the Lodges being
recruited, for the most part, by the adhesion of old Masons, both Operative
and Speculative; and among his friends he may have had some difficulty in
finding men with an adequate knowledge of the ritual. But that there was any
real difficulty in gathering together seven Masons in London is, on the face
of it, absurd. Immediately thereafter, Stuckely records, Masonry "took a run,
and ran itself out of breath through the folly of its members," but he does
not tell us what the folly was. The "run" referred to was almost

certainly due to the acceptance by the Duke of
Montagu of the Grand Mastership, which gave the order a prestige it had never
had before; and it was also in the same year, 1721, that the old Constitutions
of the Craft were revised.

Twelve Lodges attended the June quarterly
communication of the Grand Lodge in 1721, sixteen in September, twenty in
December, and by April, 1723, the number had grown to thirty. All these
Lodges, be it noted, were in London, a fact amply justifying the optimism of
Anderson in the last paragraph of the Book of Constitutions, issued in
that year. So far the Grand Lodge had not extended its jurisdiction beyond
London and Westminster, but the very next year, 1724, there were already nine
Lodges in the provinces acknowledging its obedience, the first being the Lodge
at the Queen's Head, City of Bath. Within a few years Masonry extended its
labors abroad, both on British and on foreign soil. The first Lodge on foreign
soil was founded by the Duke of Wharton at Madrid, in 1728, and regularized
the following year, by which time a Lodge had been established at the East
India Arms, Bengal, and also at Gibraltar. It was not long before Lodges arose
in many lands, founded by English Masons or by men who had received initiation
in England; these Lodges, when sufficiently numerous, uniting under Grand
Lodges--the old Lodge at York, that

ancient Mecca of Masonry, had called
itself a Grand Lodge as early as 1725. The Grand Lodge of Ireland was created
in 1729, those of Scotland and France in 1736; a Lodge
at Hamburg in 1737, though it was not patented until 1740; the Unity Lodge at
Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1742, another at Vienna the same year; the Grand
Lodge of the Three World-spheres at Berlin in 1744; and so on, until the order
made its advent in Sweden, Switzer-land, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Following the footsteps of Masonry from land to
land is almost as difficult as tracing its early history, owing to the secrecy
in which it enwrapped

its movements. For example, in 1680 there
came to South Carolina one John Moore, a native of England, who before the
close of the century removed to Philadelphia, where, in 1703, he was Collector
of the Port. In a letter written by him in 1715, he mentions having "spent a
few evenings in festivity with my Masonic brethren."
This is the first vestige of Masonry in America, unless we accept as authentic
a curious document in the early history of Rhode Island, as follows: "This ye
[day and month obliterated] 1656, Wee mett att y House off Mordicai Campanell
and after synagog gave Abram Moses the degrees of Maconrie."
On June 5, 1730, the first authority for the assembling of Free-masons in
America was issued by the Duke of Norfolk, to Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey,
appointing him Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania; and three years later Henry Price, of Boston, was appointed to
the same office for New England. But Masons had evidently been coming to the
New World for years, for the

How soon Coxe acted on the authority
given him is not certain, but the Pennsylvania Gazette, published by
Benjamin Franklin, contains many references to Masonic affairs as early as
July, 1730. Just when Franklin himself became interested in Masonry is not of
record--he was initiated in 1730-31 --but he was a
leader, at that day, of everything that would advance his adopted city; and
the "Junto," formed in 1725, often inaccurately called the Leathern-Apron
Club, owed its origin to him. In a Masonic item in the Gazette of
December 3, 1730, he refers to "several Lodges of Free-masons" in the
Province, and on June 9, 1732, notes the organization of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania, of which he was appointed a Warden, at the Sun Tavern, in Water
Street. Two years later Franklin was elected Grand Master, and the same year
published an edition of the Book of Constitutions--the first Masonic
book issued in America.

[paragraph continues]
Thus Masonry made an early advent into the new world, in which it has labored
so nobly, helping to lay the foundations and building its own basic principles
into the organic law of the greatest of all republics.

II

Returning to the Grand Lodge of England, we
have now to make record of ridicule and opposition from without, and, alas, of
disloyalty and discord within the order itself. With the publication of the
Book of Constitutions, by Anderson, in 1723, the platform and principles
of Masonry became matters of common knowledge, and its enemies were alert and
vigilant. None are so blind as those who will not see, and not a few,
unacquainted with the spirit of Masonry, or unable to grasp its principle of
liberality and tolerance, affected to detect in its secrecy some dark
political design; and this despite the noble charge in the Book of
Constitutions enjoining politics from entering the lodge--a charge hardly
less memorable than the article defining its attitude toward differing
religious creeds, and which it behooves Masons to keep always in mind as both
true and wise, especially in our day when effort is being made to inject the
religious issue into politics:

In order to preserve peace and harmony no
private piques or quarrels must be brought within the door of p. 209
the Lodge, far less any quarrel about Religions or Nations or State-Policy,
we being only, as Masons, of the Catholic Religion above mentioned (the
religion in which all men agree); we are also of all Nations, Tongues,
Kindreds and Languages, and are resolved against all Politics as what never
yet conduced to the welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will. This charge has
always been actively enjoined and observed; but especially ever since the
Reformation in Britain or the dissent and secession of these Nations from
the communion of Rome.

No sooner had these noble words been printed,
than there came to light a secret society calling itself the "truly Ancient
Noble Order of the Gormogons," alleged to have been instituted by Chin-Quaw Ky-Po,
the first Emperor of China, many thousand years before Adam. Notice of a
meeting of the order appeared in the Daily Post, September 3, 1723, in
which it was stated, among other high-sounding declarations, that "no Mason
will be received as a Member till he has renounced his noble order and been
properly degraded." Obviously, from this notice and others of like kind--all
hinting at the secrets of the Lodges--the order was

aping Masonry by way of parody with intent to
destroy it, if possible, by ridicule. For all that, if we may believe the
Saturday Post of October following, "many eminent Freemasons" had by that time
"degraded themselves" and gone over to the Gormogons. Not "many" perhaps, but,
alas, one eminent Mason at least, none other than a Past Grand Master, the
Duke of Wharton, who, piqued at an act of the Grand Lodge, had turned against
it. Erratic of mind, unstable of morals, having an inordinate lust for praise,
and pilloried as a "fool" by Pope in his Moral Essays, he betrayed his
fraternity--as, later, he turned traitor to his faith, his flag, and his
native land!

Simultaneously with the announcement that
many eminent Masons had "degraded themselves"--words most fitly chosen--and
gone over to the Gormogons, there appeared a book called the Grand Mystery
of Freemasons Discovered, and the cat was out of the bag. Everything was
plain to the Masons, and if it had not been clear, the way in which the writer
emphasized his hatred of the Jesuits would have told it all. It was a Jesuit 1
plot hatched

in Rome to expose the secrets of Masonry,
and making use of the dissolute and degenerate Mason for that purpose--tactics
often enough used in the name of Jesus! Curiously enough, this was further
made evident by the fact that the order ceased to exist in 1738, the year in
which Clement XII published his Bull against the Masons. Thereupon the
"ancient order of Gormogons" swallowed itself, and so disappeared--not,
however, without one last, futile effort to achieve its ends.
Naturally this episode stirred the Masons deeply. It was denounced in burning
words on the floor of the Grand Lodge, which took new caution to guard its
rites from treachery and vandalism, in which respects it had not exercised due
care, admitting men to the order who were unworthy of the honor.

There were those who thought that the
power of Masonry lay in its secrecy; some think so still, not knowing that its
real power lies in the sanctity of its truth, the simplicity of its
faith, the sweetness of its spirit, and its service to mankind, and that if
all its rites were made public today it would still hold the hearts of men.
Nevertheless, of alleged exposures there were many between 1724 and 1730, both
anonymous and signed, and they made much ado, especially among men who were
not Masons. It will be enough to name the most famous, as well as the most
elaborate, of them all, Masonry Dissected, by Samuel Prichard, which
ran through three editions in one month, October, 1730, and called out a noble
Defence of Masonry, written, it is thought, by Anderson, but the
present writer believes by Desaguliers. Others came later, such as Jachin
and Boaz, the Three Distinct Knocks, and so forth. They had their
day and ceased to be, having now only an antiquarian interest to those who
would know the manners and customs of a far-off time. Instead of injuring the
order, they really helped it, as such things usually do, by showing that there
must be something

to expose since so many were trying to do it.
But Masonry went marching on, leaving them behind in the rubbish of things
forgotten, as it does all its back-stair spies and heel-snapping critics.

More serious by far was the series of
schisms within the order which began in 1725, and ran on even into the next
century. For the student they make the period very complex, calculated to
bewilder the beginner; for when we read of four Grand Lodges in England, and
for some years all of them running at once, and each one claiming to be the
Grand Lodge of England, the confusion seems not a little confounded. Also, one
Grand Lodge of a very limited territory, and few adherents, adopted the title
of Grand Lodge of all England, while another which commenced in the
middle of the century assumed the title of "The Ancients," and dubbed the
older and parent Grand Lodge "The Moderns." Besides, there are traces of an
unrecorded Grand body calling itself "The Supreme Grand Lodge," 1
as if each were trying to make up in name what was lacking in numbers. Strict
search and due inquiry into the causes of these divisions would seem to show
the following results:

First, there was a fear, not unjustified by
facts, that the ancient democracy of the order had been infringed upon by
certain acts of the Grand Lodge of 1717--as, for example, giving to the Grand
Master power to appoint the Wardens. Second, there was a tendency, due to the
influence of some clergymen active in the order, to give a distinctively
Christian tinge to Masonry, first in their interpretations of its symbols, and
later to the ritual itself. This fact has not been enough emphasized by our
historians, for it explains much. Third, there was the further fact that
Masonry in Scotland differed from Masonry in England, in details at least, and
the two did not all at once harmonize, each being rather tenacious of its
usage and tradition, Fourth, in one instance, if no more, pride of locality
and historic memories led to independent organization. Fifth, there was the
ever-present element of personal ambition with which all human societies, of
whatever kind, must reckon at all times and places this side

of heaven. Altogether, the situation was amply
conducive to division, if not to explosion, and the wonder is that the schisms
were so few.

III

Time out of mind the ancient city of York had
been a seat of the Masonic Craft, tradition tracing it back to the days of
Athelstan, in 926 A. D. Be that as it may, the Lodge minutes of York are the
oldest in the country, and the relics of the Craft now preserved in that city
entitle it to be called the Mecca of Masonry. Whether the old society was a
Private or a Grand Lodge is not plain; but in 1725 it assumed the title of the
"Grand Lodge of All England,"--feeling, it would seem, that its inherent right
by virtue of antiquity had in some way been usurped by the Grand Lodge of
London. After ten or fifteen years the minutes cease, but the records of other
grand bodies speak of it as still working. In 1761 six of its surviving
members revived the Grand Lodge, which continued with varying success until
its final extinction in 1791, having only a few subordinate Lodges, chiefly in
Yorkshire. Never antagonistic, it chose to remain independent, and its history
is a noble tradition. York Masonry was acknowledged by all parties to be both
ancient and orthodox, and even to this day, in England and over

the seas, a certain mellow, magic charm clings
to the city which was for so long a meeting place of Masons.

Far more formidable was the schism of
1753, which had its origin, as is now thought, in a group of Irish Masons in
London who were not recognized by the premier Grand Lodge.
Whereupon they denounced the Grand Lodge, averring that it had adopted "new
plans" and departed from the old landmarks, reverted, as they alleged, to the
old forms, and set themselves up as Ancient Masons--bestowing upon
their rivals the odious name of Moderns. Later the two were further
distinguished from each other by the names of their respective Grand Masters,
one called Prince of Wales' Masons, the other the Atholl Masons. The great
figure in the Atholl Grand body was Lawrence Dermott, to whose keen pen and
indefatigable industry as its secretary for more than thirty years was due, in
large measure, its success. In 1756 he published its first book of laws,
entitled Ahiman Rezon, Or Help to a Brother, much of which was taken
from the

[paragraph continues]Irish Constitutions of 1751, by Pratt, and the rest from the Book of
Constitutions, by Anderson--whom he did not fail to criticize with
stinging satire, of which he was a master. Among other things, the office of
Deacon seems to have had its origin with this body. Atholl Masons were
presided over by the Masters of affiliated Lodges until 1756, when Lord
Blessington, their first titled Grand Master, was induced to accept the
honor--their warrants having been left blank betimes, awaiting the coming of a
Nobleman to that office. Later the fourth Duke of Atholl was Grand Master at
the same time of Scotland and of the Atholl Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodges of
Scotland and Ireland being represented at his installation in London.

Still another schism, not serious but
significant, came in 1778, led by William Preston, who afterwards became a
shining light in the order. On St. John's Day, December 27, 1777, the
Antiquity

[paragraph continues]
Lodge of London, of which Preston was Master--one of the four original Lodges
forming the Grand Lodge--attended church in a body, to hear a sermon by its
Chaplain. They robed in the vestry, and then marched into the church, but
after the service they walked back to the Hall wearing their Masonic clothing.
Difference of opinion arose as to the regularity of the act, Preston holding
it to be valid, if for no other reason, by virtue of the inherent right of
Antiquity Lodge itself. Three members objected to his ruling and appealed to
the Grand Lodge, he foolishly striking their names off the Lodge roll for so
doing. Eventually the Grand Lodge took the matter up, decided against Preston,
and ordered the reinstatement of the three protesting members. At its next
meeting the Antiquity Lodge voted not to comply with the order of the Grand
Lodge, and, instead, to withdraw from that body and form an alliance with the
"Old Grand Lodge of All England at York City," as they called it. They were
received by the York Grand Lodge, and soon thereafter obtained a constitution
for a "Grand Lodge of England South of the Trent." Although much vitality was
shown at the outset, this body only constituted two subordinate Lodges, and
ceased to exist. Having failed, in 1789 Preston and his friends recanted their
folly, apologized to the Grand Lodge, reunited with the men whom they had
expelled, and were

These divisions, while they were in some
ways unhappy, really made for the good of the order in the sequel--the
activity of contending Grand Lodges, often keen, and at times bitter,
promoting the spread of its principles to which all were alike loyal, and to
the enrichment of its Ritual to which each contributed. Dermott, an able
executive and audacious antagonist, had left no stone unturned to advance the
interests of Atholl Masonry, inducing its Grand Lodge to grant warrants to
army Lodges, which bore fruit in making Masons in every part of the world
where the English army went. Howbeit,

when that resourceful secretary and
uncompromising fighter had gone to his long rest, a better mood began to make
itself felt, and a desire to heal the feud and unite all the Grand Lodges--the
way having been cleared, meanwhile, by the demise of the old York Grand Lodge
and the "Grand Lodge South of the Trent." Overtures to that end were made in
1802 without avail, but by 1809 committees were meeting and reporting on the
"propriety and practicability of union." Fraternal letters were exchanged, and
at last a joint committee met, canvassed all differences, and found a way to
heal the schism.

Union came at length, in a great Lodge of
Reconciliation held in Freemason's Hall, London, on St. John's Day, December
27, 1813. It was a memorable and inspiring scene as the two Grand Lodges, so
long estranged, filed into the Hall--delegates of 641 Modern and 359 Ancient
or Atholl Lodges--so mixed as to be indistinguishable the one from the other.
Both Grand Masters had seats of honor in the East. The hour was fraternal,
each side willing to sacrifice prejudice in behalf of principles held by all
in common, and all equally anxious to preserve the ancient landmarks of the
Craft--a most significant fact being that the Atholl Masons had insisted that
Masonry erase such distinctively Christian color as had crept into it, and
return to its first platform. Once united, free of feud, cleansed of

rancor, and holding high its unsectarian,
non-partisan flag, Masonry moved forward to her great ministry. If we would
learn the lesson of those long dead schisms, we must be vigilant, correcting
our judgments, improving our regulations, and cultivating that spirit of Love
which is the fountain whence issue all our voluntary efforts for what is right
and true: union in essential matters, liberty in everything unimportant and
doubtful; Love always--one bond, one universal law, one fellowship in spirit
and in truth!

IV

Remains now to give a glimpse--and, alas, only
a glimpse--of the growth and influence of Masonry in America; and a great
story it is, needing many volumes to tell it aright. As we have seen, it came
early to the shores of the New World, long before the name of our great
republic had been uttered, and with its gospel of Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity it helped to shape the institutions of this Continent. Down the
Atlantic Coast, along the Great Lakes, into the wilderness of the Middle West
and the forests of the far South--westward it

marched as "the star of empire" led, setting up
its altar on .remote frontiers, a symbol of civilization, of loyalty to law
and order, of friendship with school-house and church. If history recorded the
unseen influences which go to the making of a nation, those forces for good
which never stop, never tarry, never tire, and of which our social order is
the outward and visible sign, then might the real story of Masonry in America
be told.

Instead of a dry chronicle, let us make effort
to capture and portray the spirit of Masonry in American history, if so that
all may see how this great order actually presided over the birth of the
republic, with whose growth it has had so much to do. For example, no one need
be told what patriotic memories cluster about the old Green Dragon Tavern,

in Boston, which Webster, speaking at Andover
in 1823, called "the headquarters of the Revolution." Even so, but it
was also a Masonic Hall, in the "Long Room" of which the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts--an off-shoot of St. Andrew's Lodge--was organized on St. John's
Day, 1767, with Joseph Warren, who afterwards fell at Bunker Hill, as Grand
Master. There Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Warren, Hancock, Otis and others met
and passed resolutions, and then laid schemes to make them come true. There
the Boston Tea Party was planned, and executed by Masons disguised as Mohawk
Indians--not by the Lodge as such, but by a club formed within the Lodge,
calling itself the Caucus Pro Bono Publico, of which Warren was the
leading spirit, and in which, says Elliott, "the plans of the Sons of Liberty
were matured." As Henry Purkett used to say, he was present at the famous Tea
Party as a spectator, and in disobedience to the order of the Master of the
Lodge, who was actively present.

As in Massachusetts, so throughout the
Colonies--the Masons were everywhere active in behalf of a nation "conceived
in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the following are known
to have been

members of the order: William Hooper,
Benjamin Franklin, Matthew Thornton, William Whipple, John Hancock, Philip
Livingston, Thomas Nelson; and no doubt others, if we had the Masonic records
destroyed during the war. Indeed, it has been said that, with four men out of
the room, the assembly could have been opened in form as a Masonic Lodge, on
the Third Degree. Not only Washington, but nearly all
of his generals, were Masons; such at least as Greene, Lee, Marion, Sullivan,
Rufus and Israel Putnam, Edwards, Jackson, Gist, Baron Steuben, Baron De Kalb,
and the Marquis de Lafayette who was made a Mason in one of the many military
Lodges held in the Continental Army. If the history of those old camp-lodges
could be written, what a story it would tell. Not only did they initiate such
men as Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall, the immortal Chief Justice, but
they made the spirit of Masonry felt in "times that try men's souls" --a
spirit passing through picket-lines, eluding sentinels, and softening the
horrors of war.

Laying aside their swords, these Masons helped
to lay wide and deep the foundations of that liberty under the law which has
made this nation, of a truth, "the last great hope of man." Nor was it an
accident, but a scene in accord with the fitness of things, that George
Washington was sworn into office as the first President of the Republic by the
Grand Master of New York, taking his oath on a Masonic Bible. It was a parable
of the whole period. If the Magna Charta demanded rights which government can
grant, Masonry from the first asserted those inalienable rights which man
derives from God the rather of men. Never did this truth find sweeter voice
than in the tones of the old Scotch fiddle on which Robert Burns, a Master
Mason, sang, in lyric glee, of the sacredness of the soul, and the native
dignity of humanity as the only basis of society and the state. That music
went marching on, striding over continents and seas, until it found embodiment
in the Constitution and laws of this nation, where today more than a million
Masons are citizens.

How strange, then, that Masonry should have
been made the victim of the most bitter and baseless persecution, for it was
nothing else, in the annals

of the Republic. Yet so it came to pass between
1826 and 1845, in connection with the Morgan affair, of which so much has
been written, and so little truth told. Alas, it was an evil hour when, as
Galsworthy would say, "men just feel something big and religious, and go blind
to justice, fact, and reason." Although Lodges everywhere repudiated and
denounced the crime, if crime it was, and the Governor of New York, himself a
Mason, made every effort to detect and punish those involved, the fanaticism

would not be stayed: the mob-mood ruled.
An Anti-Masonic political party 1
was formed, fed on frenzy, and the land was stirred from end to end. Even such
a man as John Quincy Adams, of great credulity and strong prejudice, was drawn
into the fray, and in a series of letters flayed Masonry as an enemy of
society and a free state--forgetting that Washington, Franklin, Marshall, and
Warren were members of the order! Meanwhile--and, verily, it was a mean
while--Weed, Seward, Thaddeus Stevens, and others of their ilk, rode into
power on the strength of it, as they had planned to do, defeating Henry Clay
for President, because he was a Mason--and, incidentally, electing Andrew
Jackson, another Mason! Let it be said that, if the Masons found it hard to
keep within the Compass, they at least acted on the Square. Finally the fury
spent itself, leaving the order purged of feeble men who were Masons only in
form, and a revival of Masonry followed, slowly at first, and then with great
rapidity.

No sooner had Masonry recovered from this
or-deal than the dark clouds of Civil War covered the land like a pall--the
saddest of all wars, dividing a nation one in arts and arms and historic
memories,

and leaving an entail of blood and fire and
tears. Let it be forever remembered that, while churches were severed and
states were seceding, the Masonic order remained unbroken in that wild
and fateful hour. An effort was made to involve Masonry in the strife, but the
wise counsel of its leaders, North and South, prevented the mixing of Masonry
with politics; and while it could not avert the tragedy, it did much to
mitigate the woe of it--building rainbow bridges of mercy and goodwill from
army to army. Though passion may have strained, it could not break the tie of
Masonic love, which found a ministry on red fields, among the sick, the
wounded, and those in prison; and many a man in gray planted a Sprig of Acacia
on the grave of a man who wore the blue. Some day the writer hopes to tell
that story, or a part of it, and then men will under-stand what Masonry is,
what it means, and what it can do to heal the hurts of humanity.

Even so it has been, all through our national
history, and today Masonry is worth more for the sanctity and safety of this
republic than both its army and its navy. At every turn of events, when the
rights of man have been threatened by enemies obvious or insidious, it has
stood guard--its altar lights like signal fires along the heights of liberty,
keeping watch. Not only in our own land, but everywhere over the broad earth,
when men have thrown off the yoke of tyranny, whether political or spiritual,
and demanded the rights that belong to manhood, they have found a friend in
the Masonic order--as did Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy. Nor must we be less
alert and vigilant today when, free of danger of foes from without, our
republic is imperiled by the negligence of indifference, the seduction of
luxury, the machinations of politicians, and the shadow of a passion-clouded,
impatient discontent, whose end is madness and folly; lest the most hallowed
of all liberties be lost.

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied past, and used p. 231
Within the present, but transfused
Through future time by power of thought.

V

Truly, the very existence of such a great
historic fellowship in the quest and service of the Ideal is a fact eloquent
beyond all words, and to be counted among the precious assets of humanity.
Forming one vast society of free men, held together by voluntary obligations,
it covers the whole globe from Egypt to India, from Italy to England, from
America to Australia, and the isles of the sea; from London to Sidney, from
Chicago to Calcutta. In all civilized lands, and among folk of every creed
worthy of the name, Masonry is found--and everywhere it upholds all the
redeeming ideals of humanity, making all good things better by its presence,
like a stream underflowing a meadow. 1
Also, wherever Masonry flourishes and is allowed to build freely after its
divine design, liberty, justice, education, and true religion flourish; and
where it is hindered, they suffer. Indeed, he who would reckon the spiritual
possessions of the race, and estimate the forces that make for social beauty,
national greatness, and human welfare, must take account of the genius of

[paragraph continues]
Masonry and its ministry to the higher life of the race.

Small wonder that such an order has won to its
fellowship men of the first order of intellect, men of thought and action in
many lands, and every walk and work of life: soldiers like Wellington,
Blucher, and Garibaldi; philosophers like Krause, Fichte, and John Locke;
patriots like Washington and Mazzini; writers like Walter Scott, Voltaire,
Steele, Lessing, Tolstoi; poets like Goethe, Burns, Byron, Kipling, Pike;
musicians like Haydn and Mozart--whose opera, The Magic Flute, has a
Masonic motif; masters of drama like Forrest and Edwin Booth; editors such as
Bowles, Prentice, Childs, Grady; ministers of many communions, from Bishop
Potter to Robert Collyer; statesmen, philanthropists, educators, jurists, men
of science--Masons many, whose names shine like stars in the great world's
crown of intellectual

and spiritual glory. What other order has ever
brought together men of such diverse type, temper, training, interest, and
achievement, uniting them at an altar of prayer in the worship of God and the
service of man?

For the rest, if by some art one could trace
those invisible influences which move to and fro like shuttles in a loom,
weaving the network of laws, reverences, sanctities which make the warp and
woof of society--giving to statutes their dignity and power, to the gospel its
opportunity, to the home its canopy of peace and beauty, to the young an
enshrinement of inspiration, and to the old a mantle of protection; if one had
such art, then he might tell the true story of Masonry. Older than any living
religion, the most widespread of all orders of men, it toils for liberty,
friendship, and righteousness; binding men with solemn vows to the right,
uniting them upon the only basis upon which they can meet without
reproach--like those fibers running through the glaciers, along which sunbeams
journey, melting the frozen mass and sending it to the valleys

below in streams of blessing. Other fibers are
there, but none is more far-ramifying, none more tender, none more responsive
to the Light than the mystical tie of Masonic love.

Truth will triumph. Justice will yet reign from
sun to sun, victorious over cruelty and evil. Finally Love will rule the race,
casting out fear, hatred, and all unkindness, and pity will heal the old hurt
and heart-ache of humanity. There is nothing in history, dark as much of it
is, against the ultimate fulfilment of the prophetic vision of Robert
Burns--the Poet Laureate of Masonry:

Then let us pray, that come it may--
As come it will, for a' that--
. . . . . . . . . . . .
That man to man, the world o'er
Shall brothers be, for a' that.

Footnotes

201:1 Operative
Masonry, it should be remembered, was not entirely dead, nor did it all at
once disappear. Indeed, it still exists in some form, and an interesting
account of its forms, degrees, symbols, usages, and traditions may be found in
an article on "Operative Masonry," by C. F. Stretton (Transactions
Leicester Lodge of Research, 1909-10, 1911-12). The second of these
volumes also contains an essay on "Operative Free-masons," by Thomas Carr,
with a list of lodges, and a study of their history, customs, and
emblems--especially the Swastika. Speculative Masons are now said to be
joining these Operative Lodges, seeking more light on what are called the Lost
Symbols of Masonry.

205:1 The Grand
Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, it may be added, were self-constituted,
without assistance or intervention from England in any form.

205;2 A deputation of the Hamburg Lodge
initiated Frederick--afterwards Frederick the Great of Prussia--into the order
of Masons at Brunswick, August 14, 1738 (Frederick and his Times, by
Campbell, History of Frederick, by Carlyle, Findel's History of
Masonry). Other noblemen followed his example, and their zeal for the
order gave a new date to the history of Masonry in Germany. When Frederick
ascended the throne, in 1740, the Craft was honored, and it flourished in his
kingdom. As to the interest of Frederick in the order in his later years, the
facts are not clear, but that he remained its friend seems certain (Mackey,
Encyclopedia). However, the Craft underwent many vicissitudes in Germany,
a detailed account of which Findel recites (History of Masonry). Few
realize through what frightful persecutions Masonry has passed in many lands,
owing in part to its secrecy, but in larger part to its principle of civil and
religious liberty. Whenever that story is told, as it surely will be, men
everywhere will pay homage to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons as friends
of mankind.

206:1 This letter
was the property of Horace W. Smith, Philadelphia. John Moore was the father
of William Moore, whose daughter became the wife of Provost Smith, who was a
Mason in 1775, and afterward Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania, and whose son was Grand Master of Masons in Pennsylvania in 1796
and 1797 (History of Freemasonry, by Hughan and Stillson).

206:2Ibid,
chapter on "Early American Masonic History."

207:1Benjamin
Franklin as a Free Mason, by J. F. Sachse. Oddly enough, there is no
mention of Masonry by Franklin in his Autobiography, or in any of his
letters, with but two exceptions, so far as known; which is the more
remarkable when we look at his Masonic career in France during the later years
of his life, where he was actively and intimately associated with the order,
even advancing to the higher degrees. Never for a day did he abate by one jot
his interest in the order, or his love for it.

209:1 This
injunction was made doubly strong in the edition of the Book of
Constitutions, in 1738. For example: "no quarrels about nations, families,
religion or politics must by any means or under any color or pretense whatever
be brought within the door of the Lodge . . . Masons being of all nations upon
the square, level and plumb; and like our predecessors in all ages, we are
resolved against political disputes," etc.

210:1 Masons
have sometimes been absurdly called "Protestant Jesuits," but the two orders
are exactly opposite in spirit, principle, purpose, and method. All that they
have in common is that they are both secret societies, which makes it plain
that the opposition of the Latin church to Masonry is not on the ground of its
being a secret p. 211
order, else why sanction the Jesuits, to name no other? The difference has
been stated in this way: "Opposite poles these two societies are, for each
possesses precisely those qualities which the other lacks. The Jesuits are
strongly centralized, the Freemasons only con-federated. Jesuits are
controlled by one man's will, Freemasons are under majority rule. Jesuits
bottom morality in expediency, Freemasons in regard for the well-being of
mankind. Jesuits recognize only one creed, Freemasons hold in respect all
honest convictions. Jesuits seek to break down individual independence,
Freemasons to build it up" (Mysteria, by Otto Henne Am Rhyn).

211:1 For a
detailed account of the Duke of Wharton and the true history of the Gormogons,
see an essay by R. F. Gould, in his "Masonic Celebrities" series (A. Q. C.,
viii, 144), and more recently, The Life and Writings of Philip, Duke of
Wharton, by Lewis Melville.

212:1 Findel has a
nobly eloquent passage on this point, and it tells the everlasting truth
(History of Masonry, p. 378). His whole history, indeed, is exceedingly worth
reading, the more so because it was one of the first books of the right kind,
and it stimulated research.

213:1 A paper
entitled "An Unrecorded Grand Lodge," by Sadler (A. Q. C., vol. xviii,
69-90), tells practically all that is known of this movement, which merged
with the Grand Lodge of London in 1776.

214:1 Nor was that
all. In 1735 it was resolved in the Grand Lodge "that in the future all Grand
Officers (except Grand Master) shall be selected out of that body"--meaning
the past Grand Stewards. This act was amazing. Already the Craft had let go
its power to elect the Wardens, and now the choice of the Grand Master was
narrowed to the ranks of an oligarchy in its worst form--a queer outcome of
Masonic equality. Three months later the Grand Stewards presented a memorial
asking that they "might form themselves into a special lodge," with special
jewels, etc. Naturally this bred discontent and apprehension, and justly so.

216:1 Often we
speak of "the York Rite," as though it were the oldest and truest form of
Masonry, but, while it serves to distinguish one branch of Masonry from
another, it is not accurate; for, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as
a York Rite. The name is more a tribute of reverence than a description of
fact.

216:2Masonic
Facts and Fictions, by Henry Sadler.

216:3Atholl
Lodges, by R. F. Gould.

217:1 William
Preston was born in Edinburgh in 1742, and came as a journeyman printer to
London in 1760, where he made himself conversant with the history, laws, and
rites of the Craft, being much in demand as a lecturer. He was a good speaker,
and frequently addressed the Lodges of the city. After his blunder of seceding
had been forgiven, he was honored with many offices, especially the Grand
Secretaryship, which gave him time to pursue his studies. Later he wrote the
Freemason's Callender, an appendix to the Book of Constitutions,
a History of Masonry, and, most famous of all, Illustrations of
Masonry, which passed through a score of editions. Besides, he had much to
do with the development of the Ritual.

219:1 The history
of the Ritual is most interesting, and should be written in more detail (History
of Masonry, by Steinbrenner, chap. vii, "The Ritual"). An article giving a
brief story of it appeared in the Masonic Monthly, of Boston, November,
1863 (reprinted in the New England Craftsman, vol. vii, and still later
in the Bulletin of Iowa Masonic Library, vol. xv, April, 1914). This
article is valuable as showing the growth of the Ritual--as much by
subtraction as by addition--and especially the introduction into it of
Christian imagery and interpretation, first by Martin Clare in 1732, and by
Duckerley and Hutchinson later. One need only turn to The Spirit of Masonry,
by Hutchinson (1802), to see how far this tendency had gone when at last
checked in 1813. At that time a committee made a careful comparative study of
all rituals in use among Masons, and the ultimate result was the Preston-Webb
lectures now generally in use in this country. (See a valuable article by Dr.
Mackey on "The Lectures of Freemasonry," American Quarterly Review of
Freemasonry, vol. ii, p. 297.) What a pity that this Review died of
too much excellence!

219:2Military
Lodges, by Gould; also Kipling's poem, The Mother Lodge.

220:1 Among the
articles of union, it was agreed that Freemasonry should consist of the three
symbolic degrees, "including the Holy Royal Arch." The present study
does not contemplate a detailed study of Capitular Masonry, which has its own
history and historians (Origin of the English Rite, Hughan), except to
say that it seems to have begun about 1738-40, the consensus of opinion
differing as to whether it began in England or on the Continent ("Royal Arch
Masonry," by C. P. Noar, Manchester Lodge of Research, vol. iii,
1911-12). Lawrence Dermott, always alert, had it adopted by the Atholl Grand
Lodge about thirty years before the Grand Lodge of England took it up in
1770-76, when Thomas Duckerley was appointed to arrange and introduce it.
Dermott held it to be "the very essence of Masonry," and he was not slow in
using it as a club with which to belabor the Moderns; but he did not originate
it, as some imagine, having received the degrees before he came to London,
perhaps in an unsystemized form. Duckerley was accused of shifting the
original Grand Masonic word from the Third Degree to the Royal Arch, and of
substituting another in its stead. Enough to say that Royal Arch Masonry is p.
221 authentic Masonry, being a further elaboration in drama, following the
Third Degree, of the spirit and motif of old Craft Masonry (History of
Freemasonry and Concordant Orders, by Hughan and Stillson).

221:1 It is
interesting to note that the writer of the article on "Masonry" in the
Catholic Encyclopedia--an article admirable in many ways, and for the most
part fair--makes much of this point, and rightly so, albeit his interpretation
of it is altogether wrong. He imagines that the objection to Christian imagery
in the ritual was due to enmity to Christianity. Not so. Masonry was not then,
and has never at any time been, opposed to Christianity, or to any other
religion. Far from it. But Christianity in those days--as, alas, too often
now--was another name for a petty and bigoted sectarianism; and Masonry by its
very genius was, and is, unsectarian. Many Masons then were devout Christians,
as they are p. 222
now--not a few clergymen--but the order itself is open to men of all faiths,
Catholic and Protestant, Hebrew and Hindu, who confess faith in God; and so it
will always remain if it is true to its principles and history.

223:1 As for the
chronicle, the one indispensable book to the student of American Masonry is
the History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders, by W. J. Hughan and
H. L. Stillson, aided by one of the ablest board of contributors ever
assembled. It includes a history of Masonry in all its Rites in North,
Central, and South America, with accurate accounts of the origin and growth of
every Grand Lodge in the United States and British America; also admirable
chapters on Early American Masonic History, the Morgan Excitement, Masonic
Jurisprudence, and statistics up to date of 1891--all carefully prepared and
well written. Among other books too many to name, there are the History of
Symbolic Masonry in the United States, by J. H. Drummond, and "The
American Addenda" to Gould's massive and magnificent History of Masonry,
vol. iv. What the present pages seek is the spirit behind this forest of
facts.

224:1 For the full
story, see "Reminiscences of the Green Dragon Tavern," in Centennial
Memorial of St. Andrew's Lodge, 1870.

225:1
Washington, the Man and the Mason, by C. H. Callahan. Jackson, Polk,
Fillmore, Buchanan, Johnson, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, all were
Masons. A long list may be found in Cyclopedia of Fraternities, by
Stevens, article on "Freemasonry: Distinguished Americans."

225:2
Washington and his Masonic Compeers, by Randolph Hayden.

225:3 Thomas
Paine, whose words these are, though not a Mason, has left us an essay on
The Origin of Freemasonry. Few men have ever been more unjustly and
cruelly maligned than this great patriot, who was the first to utter the name
"United States," and who, instead p. 226 of being a
sceptic, believed in "the religion in which all men agree"--that is, in God,
Duty, and the immortality of the soul.

227:1 William
Morgan was a dissolute, nondescript printer in Batavia, New York, who, having
failed in everything else, thought to make money by betraying the secrets of
an order which his presence polluted. Foolishly misled, a few Masons had him
arrested on a petty charge, got him out of the country, and apparently paid
him to stay out. Had no attention been paid to his alleged exposure it would
have fallen still-born from the press, like many another before it. Rumors of
abduction started, then Morgan was said to have been thrown into Niagara
River, whereas there is no proof that he was ever killed, much less murdered
by Masons. Thurlow Weed and a pack of unscrupulous politicians took it up, and
the rest was easy. One year later a body was found on the shore of Lake
Ontario which Weed and the wife of Morgan identified--a year afterward!--she,
no doubt, having been paid to do so; albeit the wife of a fisherman named
Munroe identified the same body as that of her husband drowned a week or so
before. No matter; as Weed said, "It's good enough Morgan until after the
election"--a characteristic remark, if we may judge by his own portrait as
drawn in his Autobiography. Politically, he was capable of anything, if
he could make it win, and here he saw a chance of stirring up every vile and
slimy thing in human nature for sake of office. (See a splendid review of the
whole matter in History of Masonry, by Hughan and Stillson, also by
Could in vol. iv of his History.)

229:1
Following the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, there was a Lodge meeting
in town, and "Yanks" and "Johnny Rebs" met and mingled as friends under the
Square and Compass. Where else could they have done so? (Tennessee Mason).
When the Union army attacked Little Rock, Ark., the commanding officer, Thomas
H. Benton--Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Iowa--threw a guard about the
home of General Albert Pike, to protect his Masonic library. Marching
through burning Richmond, a Union officer saw the familiar emblems over a
hall. He put a guard about the Lodge room, and that night, together with a
number of Confederate Masons, organized a society for the relief of widows and
p. 230
orphans left destitute by the war (Washington, the Man and the Mason,
Callahan). But for the kindness of a brother Mason, who saved the life of a
young soldier of the South, who was a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Ill.,
the present writer would never have been born, much less have written this
book. That young soldier was my father! Volumes of such facts might be
gathered in proof of the gracious ministry of Masonry in those awful years.

231:1
Cyclopedia of Fraternities, by Stevens (last edition), article, "Free
Masonry," pictures the extent of the order, with maps and diagrams showing its
world-wide influence.

232:1 Space does
not permit a survey of the literature of Masonry, still less of Masonry in
literature. (Findel has two fine chapters on the literature of the order, but
he wrote, in 1865, History of Masonry.) For traces of Masonry in
literature, there is the famous chapter in War and Peace, by Tolstoi;
Mon Oncle Sosthenes, by Maupassant; Nathan the Wise, and
Ernest and Falk, by Lessing; the Masonic poems of Goethe, and many hints
in Wilhelm Meister; the writings of Herder (Classic Period of German
Letters, Findel), The Lost Word, by Henry Van Dyke; and, of course,
the poetry of Burns.

Masonic phrases and allusions--often almost too
revealing--are found all through the poems and stories of Kipling. Besides
p.233 the poem The Mother Lodge, so much
admired, there is The Widow of Windsor, such stories as With the
Main Guard, The Winged Hats, Hal o’ the Draft, The City
Walls, On the Great Wall, many examples in Kim, also in
Traffics and Discoveries, Puck of Pook's Hill, and, by no means
least, The Man Who Would be King, one of the great short stories of the
world.